The Drive-Thru: New battlefronts in the fast-food chicken wars, Kroger's rebrand, and Wegmans mania hits New York
Happy Friday! Welcome to another week of The Drive-Thru, where I break down the biggest stories in shopping, fast food, and more. You can sign up to become a Drive-Thru subscriber here to get a rundown on what is happening in retail in your inbox every Friday.
Is everyone ready for Popeyes' chicken sandwich to come back on Sunday? If not, keep reading...
The chicken sandwich wars are heating back up.
I got internal documents that indicate McDonald's is planning to launch chicken during breakfast in January 2020. McDonald's already has options like the Chicken McGriddle and McChicken Biscuit at about half of its locations. A national launch will take chicken at breakfast to a whole new level, just as KeyBanc analysts declare that "breakfast and chicken are the new battlegrounds."
In a battlefront that is heating up even sooner, Popeyes is bringing back its chicken sandwich on Sunday. Popeyes is already throwing jabs at Chick-fil-A, considered by many to be the current king of chicken sandwiches. Even if Twitter doesn't care as much about chicken sandwiches this time around, restaurant chains are still very, very invested in winning.
For those keeping track at home, here's how the rivals match up:
- Chick-fil-A. The chain that started it all. As the self-proclaimed inventor of the chicken sandwich, its growth from a regional Southern brand to the third-largest chain in the US helped convince other companies they needed to get in on the chicken-sandwich-and-biscuit game. It's also closed on Sundays.
- Popeyes. Chicken sandwich game changer, with a launch that exceeded everyone's wildest expectations. The sandwich really is as good as people say it is, which means that even as the press dies down, sales should still be impressive. Fortunately for Chick-fil-A, it's not typically open for breakfast.
- Wendy's. As a national chain known for its chicken sandwich, Wendy's is typically seen as one of the brands most threatened by Chick-fil-A's expansion. It is launching its breakfast menu in January with a chicken biscuit that takes clear aim at Chick-fil-A.
- McDonald's. Its chicken sandwich simply can't compete with the top players. Franchisees are begging the company to come up with a better sandwich, but early attempts have been disappointing. The potential for a national breakfast campaign with a trendy new item should worry Wendy's and Chick-fil-A.
Read more about McDonald's chicken at breakfast here and the Popeyes chicken sandwich here. Email chicken gossip to me at ktaylor@businessinsider.com.
Kroger has a 'new brand' coming next week.
When we last checked in with Kroger, restructuring was worrying workers.
On Monday, Kroger sent around an internal memo promising a brand overhaul and that "all will be revealed" on November 6. Hayley got her hands on the memo, which says that "old approaches aren't working." The grocery chain also reversed its ban on Visa credit cards this week.
In a research note citing Business Insider's report on the memo, Jefferies analyst Christopher Mandeville said a rebranding could signify that Kroger management is prepared make drastic changes.
"Ultimately, this could prove to be a wise move; however, until we receive greater detail, there are far too many unknowns to get encouraged by management's willingness to make drastic, and potentially necessary, change," Mandeville wrote.
Read Hayley's story for what we know so far about the brand overhaul.
Wegmans mania hits Brooklyn.
Wegmans opened in Brooklyn and people were extremely excited. Shoshy was on the scene to talk with some of the 25,000 customers who visited on opening day, including people who lined up in the middle of the night in pouring rain to be the first ones in the door.
"Some people go to the Super Bowl, some people go to Tour de France," Susan Myers, who made the first purchase at the store on Sunday morning, told Shoshy. "I come to the Wegmans opening."
Get a look inside Wegmans' opening here. And, meet the super fans - including a man in a shirt that combined a black metal band album cover with Wegmans - here.
The American Dream is alive ... but it's pretty empty.
Shoshy also headed to New Jersey to check out the opening of the American Dream megamall, a story more than 20 years in the making. The mall was originally envisioned in 1996 and was initially supposed to be called Xanadu.
Last Friday, the American Dream finally opened its doors. While tickets to the theme park were supposedly sold out, the three-million-square-foot center was eerily empty and subdued.
To be fair, only the the Nickelodeon Universe theme park and an ice-skating rink are open now, with stores set to open in 2020. But, the subdued opening - especially when compared to the celebratory mood at the jam-packed Wegmans - raises questions about whether the American Dream can thrive as the retail apocalypse continues.
Check out Shoshy's tour of the megamall here.
Taste test of the week: Which bubble-tea chain reigns supreme?
As bubble-tea chains take over New York City and the rest of the US, Irene set out to figure out which chains reign supreme. The winners were two Taiwanese chains: Instagram-famous Tiger Sugar and the more old-school Gong Cha.
Irene's take: "The drink that stood out to me the most was Tiger Sugar's. Its boba were absolutely perfect in every way, and the brown sugar milk was delightfully rich. However, if you don't agree that Tiger Sugar is bubble tea ... With delicate flavors and textures, Gong Cha's milk tea is inviting and drinkable. Everything tastes fresh and flavorful, and a little something extra."
Read the play-by-play of how seven chains matched up here.
Everything else:
- ABG's bid to buy Barneys' assets was approved on Thursday. Read the leaked memo from CEO Daniella Vitale about the deal here.
- MillerCoors basically doesn't exist anymore, as the brand gets folded into Molson Coors, which is also dropping "Brewing" from its name to win over spiked-seltzer-loving millennials.
- White Claw rival Truly changed its recipes, and the drinks are actually good now.
- I talked with Grant Reid, the CEO of Mars.
- Whole Foods workers are concerned about the pace of change at the Amazon-owned grocery chain.
- In a very on-the-nose retail apocalypse moment, a Toys R Us was transformed into a haunted house.
- Beyond Meat's CEO is telling investors that the company will be the Tesla or Amazon of the meat industry.
- GrubHub lost more than a third of its market value after dismal earnings.
- Jersey Mike's thought the right response to a discussion of gun control was to tweet: "If the laws were up to us, we'd make it so everyone had to eat Jersey Mike's Subs on Sunday."
- Costco employees' badge colors have hidden meanings!
- Jeff Bezos is a fashion icon and trendsetter now.
- Kanye West's song about Chick-fil-A convinced me to write a very long piece about Kimye's relationship to fame and fast food, including a deep cut from my 2015 interview with then-Carl's Jr. CEO Andy Puzder.
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